It’s a phrase as synonymous with Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin as his number 74 — both part of his signature. On the ice he leads the team with an ‘A’ on his chest, and at home he leads Bible study.
“[Jesus] is everything,” Slavin said in an interview with Sports Spectrum, a media platform ‘where sports and faith connect’ before the start of the 2024-2025 season. “He’s Lord of my life, he’s Lord of all my life because if he’s not Lord of everything he’s not Lord at all. I live my life because of him and what he did for me. My purpose in my life, my purpose in my marriage, my purpose in being a father — it’s all to glorify him because he’s worthy of that glory. He’s my everything.”
For those who don’t watch hockey, it might be hard to imagine that Christianity is not as prevalent in the NHL when you can turn on a football game and hear a player start or finish his interview thanking God often. The NHL is a league that often masks the players behind the team, with very few outspoken about their personal and/or religious beliefs.
“There’s not that many Christians in the NHL still, it’s still such a minority group,” Slavin said on Sports Spectrum. “You might be lucky to have one on a team. In Carolina we have at the most four and a couple guys interested. There’s just not that many Christians around the NHL.”
Among those who are fervently outspoken about their Christian faith, Slavin stands out as one of the most renowned and accomplished.
Since coming into the league in 2015, Slavin has logged around 22 minutes of ice time per game, often against the opposing team’s top lines. In his nine seasons in the NHL, the defenseman has never finished with a negative plus-minus rating, recording a +20 or greater in a season five times.
There isn’t much that Slavin can’t do.
“He might be, in any given year, the best defensive defenseman in the league,” said Mike Kelly, an NHL Network analyst back in 2022.
Going into his 700th NHL game back in December, Slavin led all NHL defensemen in takeaways with 672 — over 100 more than the next closest defenseman since his rookie year. In the last six seasons, he has ranked lower than third just once in takeaways in a season. When people think of a ‘defensive defenseman,’ they think of Slavin.
Known for his elite defensive stickwork, Slavin contributes more than just in his own zone. Among defensemen, Slavin leads the Hurricanes franchise in points and is second in goals. He’s also one of the fastest defensemen in the NHL — clocking a speed burst of 24.19 mph this season.
“The abilities I have in this game aren’t from myself,” Slavin said in an interview with Sara Civian for The Athletic in 2018. “They’re from the Lord. I am just trying to use them to the best of my ability so that I can spread the Gospel. My wife and I try to be really active with it because God’s given us a platform.”
His play and conduct on the ice have earned him two Lady Byng Memorial trophies which is awarded “to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.” After earning his second this past year, Slavin became just the second defenseman in NHL history to win the award twice, joining the Red Wings’ Red Kelly.
“Out of all the awards that I’d want to win, that’s the one that means the most to me,” Slavin said on Sports Spectrum. “That exemplifies how I try to carry myself, how I want to live and I do that by trying to represent Jesus the best that I can. People might now know it but what they’re seeing is Jesus through me.”
Whether through sharing the word of Christ or charity donations, Slavin lives to spread the lessons of the Gospel. He, along with his wife Kylie, launched a campaign called “Fight For Freedom” during the 2023-2024 season, which raised over $1 million to combat the crimes of labor trafficking, sex trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines.
His relationship with God has not only improved his life but those of his teammates. Defenseman Jalen Chatfield first moved to Raleigh prior to the 2021-2022 season after a stint with the Vancouver Canucks.
Getting to know each other, Slavin found out that Chatfield had gone to chapel in Vancouver but wasn’t devoted to Jesus and had questions about the Gospel’s teachings. As the season went on, the two grew closer to each other and to God, and by the end, both Chatfield and his now-wife Drew were baptized in Slavin’s pool.
“One of the things my wife and I have always said is, ‘If I go my whole career and never win a Stanley Cup, him coming to know the Lord was way worth it’,” Slavin said on Sports Spectrum. “So much more fulfilling than what a Stanley Cup would bring.”
Although a hockey player, it’s being a Christian and living life through the Gospel that makes Jaccob Slavin who he is. A verse, Galatians 1:10, in both his Instagram and X bio, says all he wants you to know.
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
